Sunday, February 6, 2011

Pleasure and Community Service

Pleasure
Bob Marley, "Easy Skanking," Reggae, 1978
A Tribe Called Quest, "Bonita Applebum," Hip Hop, 1992
A Tribe Called Quest, "Electric Relaxation," Hip Hop, 1993
The Rolling Stones, "Rip This Joint," Rock, 1972
Led Zeppelin, "Whole Lotta Love," Rock, 1969
Community Service
Marvin Gaye, "Whats Going On," R&B, 1971
Matisyahu, "One Day," Alternative, 2009
Talib Kweli, "Get By," Hip Hop, 2002
Richie Havens, "Freedom," Folk Rock, 1969
Bob Marley, "Redemption Song," Reggae, 1980

I thought that both were relatively easy to find songs for, but the pleasure aim is clearly more prevalent in music. But there are a lot of songs about change and revolution that I thought could have been used for the community service aim. I think there are more songs about pleasure because people would rather hear about things that make people feel good then listen to socially conscious songs that make people think about the things that are wrong with the world. The thing that I noticed is that the four aims of Hinduism cover basically all of the topics covered in music, there isn't much else that people can or do write songs about. I tried to incorporate as many genres of music as I could and it wasn't hard because it seems like every genre has a good mix of songs for not just the pleasure and community service aim but for the other two aims as well.

1 comment:

  1. I agree music is there for us all the time, and these four Aims basically cover every aspect of our lives. I think that people want to listen to music that makes them feel good inside and give them pleasure.

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